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Tuesday, March 26, 2013

An Opportunity Amidst Ethiopia's Chaos

Stephen Hayes is president and CEO of the Corporate Council on Africa.
Moving through Addis Ababa is as close to a microcosm of Africa as
anywhere on the continent. There is construction everywhere, as African
cities are expanding. The streets of Addis are full of smoke and fume
from belching autos, usually older models, and like most major cities
anywhere, are jammed at rush hour. Goats, stray dogs and pedestrians are
to be dodged and stopped for as they move across your vision ahead.
There are no traffic signals anywhere in this city of five million, and
so all intersections are to be negotiated carefully or by bluff. To
those who hesitate, frustration is soon ahead.
Along with the growing numbers of automobiles are more and
more pedestrians in the marketplaces, going to school, or just coming
into the city to seek jobs. There are the government workers, and like
many countries in Africa, the bureaucracy is the largest employer in
the country.
There are tensions everywhere. There is the tension of cultural
change, seemingly inevitable, as pastoral lives disappear in the face
of urbanization. There is religious tension as two great religions
swirl in immediate proximity of one another, though Ethiopia is managing
this better than some places on the continent, and there is the
tension of an historically suppressed private sector trying to open up
in the face of a bureaucracy afraid of losing control.
Cell phones and blackberries are inoperable in most parts of the
city because the government is keeping a tight rein on allowable
communication. Ultimately, they can no more keep the lid on
communication than they can control the tides of the sea or the phases
of the moon above. People look for ways to beat the system rather
than work with it, and this is perhaps the greatest tension ahead for
many African countries: The tension between the government and the
people to be governed. Journalists take care lest they be jailed, and
human rights in the western understanding is still not encouraged.
The Ethiopians were suppressed under an extreme and brutal socialist
state for decades, and although the suppression has largely been
withdrawn by a wiser and more humane leadership, particularly under the
late Prime Minister Meles, open dialogue is still not encouraged as
much as one might hope. Businesses must renew their licenses to operate
every year through a review by the relevant ministry making
long-range planning and investment difficult.
Yet despite all the barriers, small businesses are developing along
with major projects. A 65-floor Hyatt Regency, which will be the
tallest building in Ethiopia is being built, along with many new office
buildings, to be filled with investors and new businesses. China is,
as it is in many countries, the leading investor, and Chinese
construction is throughout the city and countryside. The new hotel
across from the African Union headquarters is being built by a Chinese
construction firm, as was the AU headquarters, though the owner is a
Saudi-Ethiopian investor.
As usual what is missing are the Americans. One sees few examples of
American investment, though investments from the Turks, Arabs,
Israelis, and Indians are evident. There are many reasons for this, I
suppose, but it does not help us to have reasons not to do things when
there are far more overwhelming reasons to be doing what everyone else
is engaged in. Our future may depend on it.
http://www.usnews.com